To say that things haven't gone to plan thus far in the Queens would be a gross understatement in the eyes of many Mets fans. Indeed, after being given the dubious honor of being Sports Illustrated's pick to win the world series this year a lot of things have gone arwy. First Oliver Perez with his new 30 million dollar contract all of sudden forgets how to pitch completely (as opposed to how he usually pitches, great one day awful the next) then catcher Brian Schneider goes down, Daniel Murphy looks lost in left field, Delgado goes down for ten weeks, Reyes is afflicted with some mystery injury and now Beltran is down too. Damn now that's a long sentence, at least a run on or two, but if you were told all of those things happen, plus add in some other injuries or bouts of ineffectiveness by guys like JJ Putz, you'd think that Mets would be languishing in last place right now, but in fact that is not the case only a hair away from the first place Phillies a half game back with a record at 25-20. For sure, all these obstacles considered the mets could be a lot worse off, but yet when right fielder Ryan Church went to the DL two days ago desperation set in in the Mets front office and they brought up the still 20 year old super-prospect Fernando Martinez to fill his place and I find the move quite puzzling. Considered one of the top five prospects in all of baseball by many, his talents are numerous but at an age where he's still learning the game I question the mets sacrificing his development for the sake of unwarranted desperation.
As I mentioned above, Martinez has displayed a great deal of talent and baseball skill since the get go. Signing as a 16 year old with the mets, the outfielder has showed himself to be the coveted five tool player, hitting for power and average while displaying great speed on the basepaths. This combination has enabled the youngster to rocket through the mets system in three years to AAA and now the majors while still only the age of 20, but I fear it is too much too soon for the prodigously talented outfielder. Indeed if we look at his numbers thus far we see a player who's clearly talented, but there is concerns with his plate disiclpine and whether he will be able to handle major league pitching. Consider this year in AAA Buffalo Martinez hit .291/.337/.552, not a terrible line especially for 20 year old in AAA, but a .337 OBP is not exactly a great walk rate. Add in the fact that this number will only go down when he gets to the big show as he faces better competition, you have to wonder whether he'll actually be any help to the Mets. Compare that to let's say David Wright's minor league numbers where he displayed a great deal of patience having an on-base percentage of .385 in his one year in AAA and never OBPing less than .360, Wright epitomizes a guy who deserved to come up early and possessed the skills to excel as a major leaguer. In sharp contrast Martinez has never even approached that number and for this reason I fear bringing him up now will only embarass the kid and disrupt his necessary development.
The decision to potentially rupture Martinez's development is even more puzzling when you consider the Mets immdiate schedule and how ridiclously easy it is. Having come back from a perticularly difficult part of the schedule where they went west to face the giants and dodgers, the latter whom swept them, the hobbled mets went into Fenway Park to face the Red Sox, where they had only lost four times this year and took two out of three, not bad for a team that was missing Delgado and Reyes and Beltran was relegated to DHing duties. But now the schedule for the next few weeks gets really easy, a series against the nationals, then florida who has not played well recently, the pirates and then the nationals again before going to philly on June 9th. that's eleven games, 13 if you include the two wins against the nats already that the mets can breeze through, the absolute dregs of the national league who are all playing poorly and are emminently winnable games. Half game out of first, 13 winnable games against bad teams, what exactly is the desperation again? It would be one thing if they were facing a tough schedule and they were sliding out of contention, they've played well despite all the problems, so why hurt Martinez' development and possibly sacrifice his future when its not a dire situation?
Lastly, while it is a loss to not have Ryan Church out there for the next two weeks its not like they're going to be exactly missing his production. Through 39 games Church has hit a pretty atrocious .272/.328/.352, your right fielder is slugging less than .400! I'll bet a lot of pitchers have higher slugging percentages than that! My point is that the mets could find pretty much anyone out there to stand out in right field and get similiar production, but the truth of it is it hasn't hurt them to this point. The mets have managed just fine with Church holding a toothpick in his hands and played that into a tight race in the NL east, so why all of sudden do you NEED production from right field?
I think Martinez can and will be a good player for the Mets, permitted that he's allowed to refine his baseball skills in the minor leagues. he's got undeniable talents, but if the mets really think he's going to come up and hit .300 and 8 home runs in a month they're mistaken, he's a kid still and is still learning to play it at its highest level. Of course who knows he could hit right away, become a sensation and never go back down to the minors and be every bit as good as the mets believe he is, but I dont see it, not yet at least.
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